Not quite ready to market your listings in Chinese but would like to take basic steps in being found online by an international audience?

We’ve seen thousands of luxury property descriptions. Although we translate the listings, we also recognize a pattern of common and easily avoidable mistakes agents make that might prevent their listing from being received by an international clientele.

Hyper localization – There’s a good chance the buyer of a luxury residence (or any residence) will be relocating from somewhere else other than your city; maybe another state, maybe another country. Don’t assume everyone is familiar with your town. Descriptions like “Beautiful south of the blvd GEM!” are irrelevant to anyone living outside of the area.

Abbreviations – (Rep Buyer, Pl/t/c, 2+Den Twnhse, Valet, 24hr Sec)
Space might be limited to describe a property but whenever possible take the time to write out the full sentence. Buyers are not looking for luxury homes in the local classifieds so the property description shouldn’t read like one. International buyers will have no chance of understanding these abbreviations, even if they can read English.

Jargon – Painting a visual picture with words is quite a talent, but going overboard can be distracting, especially to a reader whose English isn’t their primary language. Rare for its immense acreage abutting the auburn lit countryside, this secluded masterpiece…. From the motor court one enters an enchanting entry garden – lawns and leafy trees immediately create a tranquil and calm ambiance… This might sound nice while curled up on the couch drinking a glass of wine but for a real estate listing it can be a bit much. Jargon and Nuances also don’t translate well.

Cart Before the Horse? – Quite often we’re contacted by companies or agents wanting to market their listings to China, but don’t yet have quality English language marketing materials. Start with a strong foundation. Once quality photos are taken (professional), an up to date website, and well written property description, then it’s time to start thinking about international marketing options.

Machine Translation Tools – Try this. Visit a credible foreign language news website, copy and paste the text into Google translate, and read the content that’s been translated into English. It probably doesn’t read very well if it makes sense at all. This is exactly what foreign readers see when reading English source text though web translation tools.